The Mask of Apollo is narrated by Nikeratos, a fictional character who observes and interacts with the historical characters Plato, Dionysius II, and Dion.

Dozens of other men and women people the novel, but these three historical figures are responsible for the events that shape the destiny of Syracuse.

Nikeratos first sees Plato at a dinner party hosted by Dion. The gray-bearded philosopher looks like "an old athlete" with battle scars from long ago on his arm. Nikeratos mistakes him for a poet.

Both Plato and Dion demonstrate that they do not understand the motivations of average men when they misinterpret why the crowd murdered the man who tried to harm Nikeratos in the theater earlier that day. The novel begins long after Plato's return from his first disastrous trip to Syracuse; before the end of the novel, he makes two more—equally...